There’s the hackneyed phrase in business the customer is always right, and after too many years in retail, I can confirm that this is complete hokum put up in order to make the customer feel welcome, feel involved. The truth is that punters are invariably wrong and many many things that are far worse. If you give away free ice-cream with every purchase, the first voices you will hear are not those saying thank you, but those moaning they either don’t like the flavours that you are offering, or they are lactose intolerant. The salesman’s job is always to be prepared to overcome the obstacles, and not mistake the obstacles for legitimate instructions, or invitations to join Goose Chases.
Some Tottenham fans aren’t just hard to please, they are nigh on impossible to please. Some just want to win, and some (a new, post Internet breed of customers) want to be entertained. Is that wildly inaccurate? Because when I was I consuming football as a teenager, IF I WAS VERY LUCKY occasional highlights would be televised, and 95% of the information I gleaned was from the radio coverage and via the printed press, which in those days was produced by grown ups on salaries, opposed to Millennials getting what they can squeeze out of programmatic advertising models. So quite how the modern fan would fare if they had to rely upon a vidiprinter final score update, then a day later, a match report in a newspaper. Enough of the dark old days, and let’s deal with the troublesome now, eh?
Mourinho is here and the metamorphosis from Nice Boy losers, into “clever [rude word], not stupid [rude word]” is proving painful. That’s not up for debate. But just how seriously we take the narration of every single game buy some customers who don’t understand what they are looking at?
Make no mistake, context is our friend and if we banish it, then we aren’t having a conversation, we’re listening to dissatisfied people who continuously repeat themselves. The context tells us that Pochettino was great for a few years, but the last few years were horrible, because he was not supported by Levy. That’s not opinion, that’s fact.
The context tells us that both he and Jürgen Klopp were both given similar amounts of time in order to create their squads. It’s not opinion, but fact, that the German got a better deal from Fenway than the Argentine did from ENIC. The proof is one guy won nothing and was fired, while the other guy became the champion of England and the champion of Europe.
As per the latest #KeepItTottenham podcast, José is in the process of getting the squad where he needs it to be. You’ve heard all this twaddle about building before, so let me cut to the chase, so you understand I’m not selling you anything. I’m sadly having to explain to some of you how football works.
PHASE ONE The new coach comes in and has to make assessments of what he’s dealing with. We saw in the All or Nothing documentary that Mourinho ran into am expert on chocolate bars, and a born leader who couldn’t understand where the collective responsibility was.
PHASE TWO The new coach identifies who needs to lose, and who needs to add, and gets that business done.
PHASE THREE is in many respects, the last chance saloon, because in any professional sport, the metric is winning. So this is the final adjustment of playing staff where, by the time his second summer window closes, the gaffer is ‘there, or thereabouts’.
After this, the coach embarks on a constant process of fine tuning and refinement. If that is blocked, then you get staleness that eventually did for Pochettino.
Quite why some customers are bleating when we are at the end of phase two and yet to complete phase three is tiresome, but it doesn’t shock me. We live in an age where after virtually every game articles are published with unsubstantiated hate in their headlines, such as “Get him outta my club!“…
Mourinho is in the process of repairing something that was horribly broken, yet some appear to convinced themselves Pochettino-ball was all about the Ajax comeback. It wasn’t. In the last two years of that failed reign it far closer to the dismal Champions League final performance we served up.
So far, Mourinho has been backed, and the sooner he is allowed to further free up the colossal salaries being wasted (Danny Rose £60,000-pwk, Gareth Bale £250,000-pwk, Dele Alli £100,000-pwk, plus whatever Gedson Fernandes and Carlos Vicinicus are on) which currently sits in the region of half a million pounds a week – the better.
Whatever your gripes with Mourinho might be, the process is not over and if we were to use Liverpool Football Club as a success yardstick, then if this season ends with us having won nothing, but better than 14th in the division, then that’s better than where we were when Poch was fired. So, we’ll be ahead of schedule. If you have a problem with the ice-cream, I hate to break it to you, but I’m focused on bigger picture stuff, over here on the grown-ups table.
Capitalism must never be stunted
The premier league in the 90s was the first big change. When the money started to roll in because of tv mainly. Sky started televising at different times. It changed rapidly then.
Well said Mr H.. 👌 Got to love the humour too amongst the serious message… Another thing that I find strange is multiple spurs fans banging on about Pochs net wage and spend.. You guys ask a manure fan what their net wage was in 99 when they did the big treble… Or what was Bill Nicholsons net wage in his double winning year? Noone knows or cares about net wage. Alot of fans/people are a few cakes short of a picnic.
Any the trend continues in 2020. Well spotted stats.we drop too many points to lowly opposition
Crystal P, West Ham, Newcastle, Wolves diff between 1 and 7.
Just a few things to mention .
How many months was Kane out?
How many strikers did we have?
Backing your manager always helps.
Champions League ruined things by creating a financial elite. Then T Vrights poured obscene money into the game.
It’s imperative EVERY season
Fingers crossed, but Jose doesn’t seem to fancy him too much outside the EL…
If it wasn’t for this C 19 fing and money was making like as planned levy would be dropping some big dough at market. You think it’s joke.
Apologies for this, but If you remember the Howard Wilkinson and Dave Basset days, that was when football nearly died for me. The new ‘coach’ eventually finished that style and re-modernised the game as a whole, with not everything for the better.
Entertainment, you can tell those that make such demands are of the modern fan society, with their itchy fingers ready to type out their stuff and nonsense and crucify anything in games that doesn’t match their perfect lives.
The game is about systems that work better than the oppositions, and you need more than one, even if it’s a tinker to make the difference, and all the time keeping as many of your squad content enough to break a sweat when they play.
Mourinho is a law unto himself, he craves success and has an incorrigible mindset in how he plays the game, I want the man to be successful at this club, it’s as huge for him as it is for this club, but I’m not sure right now.
Vini will not be leaving. You’ll be seeing vini doing his ting when the time’s right. Wait and see. Leader sanitizer would be a great bring in
Exactly – Jose won’t need (nor will he get) hundreds of millions to sign players. Decreasing the wage bill by getting rid of players going nowhere (Sanchez, Rose, Gedson, probably Dele, Bale, Vinicius, and Lamela) is crucial, as is replacing them with quality, hard-working players who can produce on a regular basis, not just when the stars align.
Sabitzer would be a good option in midfield, a strong CB is a must (Conor Coady might be a decent bet, though I don’t know how much Wolves would want for him; or maybe we’ll go back for Skriniar?), and the fitness of Lo Celso and Ndombele has to improve to the point they can be used regularly and for 90 minutes, if need be. And the work doesn’t stop there.
It will take time, and shouting on Twitter that Jose is Satan won’t help.
Significant budget? Not really. He’ll blag a few quid off Daniel and hustle off some of the not good enoughs. Strong squad at tottenham with some good good youts ready to drop in too. No one can tell me we cant win the league next season.
Managers reputations now game to game, mob was out for Ole a while ago now he’s fantastic.
Arteta was an FA Cup winner just in the door, then he was clueless, now with a few decent results the mob has stowed their pitchforks and put out their burning torches, until the next defeat.
A manager will soon have a shorter life span than a mayfly, comparatively speaking.
And finished off with juice !
I think Jose will require a significant budget to compete for the title. Not sure that will be forthcoming. Here’s to a successful 2021 though!
José. Just drop a cup on me, any cup. Let’s get this winning ting moving. Next season we start the ting proper
And sprinkles!
Weak mentality, weak squad, weak manager – there’s always been reasons why we drop too many points to so-called lesser opposition;
15/16 finished 11 points behind Leicester
THFC v Stoke 2-2
Leicester v THFC 1-1
THFC v Everton 0-0
Swansea v THFC 2-2
WBA v THFC 1-1
THFC v Newcastle 1-2
Everton v THFC 1-1
THFC v Leicester 0-1
West Ham v THFC 1-0
THFC v West Brom 1-1
THFC V Southampton 1-2
Newcastle v THFC 5-1
29 points dropped – had we won just the Home games above and we can even let the defeat at home to Leicester stand – we would have won the league
16/17 finished 7 points behind Chelsea
Everton v THFC 1-1
WBA v THFC 1-1
Bournemouth v THFC 0-0
THFC v Leicester 1-1
Sunderland v THFC 0-0
West Ham v THFC 1-0
13 points dropped – turn 4 away draws into victories and we win the league
I think we have sorted the weak manager bit out, and I am happy he has recognised the weak mentality (which will take time / player transfers to sort out), just hope we can identify and secure the services of the right players – and they need not cost the earth – see PEH for further details.
Yep. Sold it’s soul to the American way. SUPER SUNDAY! MNF! Assists!
It was never about that.
Football was about football then.
Now PLCs.
Obscene amount of money floating around in the game.
More of a level playing field in 60s
I can remember so many grim games and grim periods that all that entertains me now is the Table.
“61 & never again”
Can I have aflake in mine?
Did someone say free ice cream?
It’s an entertainment product now. I much prefer the old days, it was more special. You go and watch your team, or on tv it’s 1 match on a Sunday and the goals at halftime or MOTD. World cups were magical and a mystery, when the Brazilians turned up it was like aliens had arrived. Everyone played in their own country, you never really saw them. It was exciting. Homogenised product saturation now but even so THFC have been about football the right way. Winning, yes, but still 20/30% possession and zero shots at goal won’t really get you anywhere in the end. Dybala would help…Sandro Tonali would help….a chairman who didn’t care more about menus headings would help….
None of that may matter though. 60 years on…
HH sorry to disappoint but no ifs or buts it’s imperative that we win some silverware this season!!